We've Got Color

The front stairway is finished, and the bamboo floor is in. Now comes the paint. The colors are pretty hard to capture in pictures, but here's a peek at the first coat.

This is coming up the new staircase (now wrapped in bamboo) on the way to the attic.



Looking back down the staircase to see the orange.



When you come into the bedroom upstairs, there's another orange wall (the far exterior wall. It seems like a lot of orange when looking at it like this, but it doesn't seem like so much when you're in the space.



This view is standing in front of the orange wall and shooting the bedroom (see, now you can't see that other orange wall, hee hee). There are two dark gray walls here and a the rest is our "neutral" color, which I have finally conceded is not all that neutral. Everyone keeps laughing at me for calling it that. Roberto, our painter, says it's green. I think it looks pretty fabulous in combination with all the other colors. Martin is not quite sure about it, feeling that it is pretty green for being our "neutral" color. But I think as the rest of the colors come in (we had painted the Mojito color first), it is starting to come together and look really nice.






In the second bedroom, looking back through the whole attic (the hallway in between has the bathroom and laundry, then you can see the orange wall of the front bedroom).



And here you can see the other side of the bedroom (the sunroom is visible through the doorway, and we plan to paint that room the peacock blue).

Starting the Staircase

It's meticulous work, this staircase building. The first day was entirely spent just measuring and figuring, lots of drawing on the wall, then erasing and drawing again. But Hector worked it out, and finally they started building. First, they built the platforms which would be the landings. And the next day, he did the first four steps.





The next day's work was an additional bit of steps.



From above, looking down the staircsase:



And then they added a few more stairs to get to the winding part of the stairway:



And finally, they made it all the way to the top:



From above:



From the upper landing:



Today, they are working on wrapping the bamboo around the plywood base, so it will be sturdy, safe, functional and...PRETTY!

New Water Main

There's a big hole in front of our house.




The view from the basement of the future site of the new water meter.

Removing the Radiators

They're big, they're heavy, they're awkward. Some of them had to be cut into pieces in order to be carried. But now, they're gone.

And we don't have any source for heat until the job is done...so let's hope for a warm October.

(HA! That's kind of a joke, because I'm back-dating this, it's now November, and it actually turned out to be one of the coldest Chicago Octobers on record. But truly, those were my thoughts when they took away our ugly but very warm radiators. I will kind of miss their steamy sounds.)

Three Days of Tile Work

Day One: first wall tiled (well, almost).



Day Two: shower floor stones (and Dunkin Donuts bag).



We did decide to tile all four of the walls, using the large gray-black tiles on three of the walls and a small glass mosaic on the vanity wall. On the black walls, there are going to be four vertical stripes with the glass tiles (these are the same colors as the vanity wall, but a different size/layout), one tall one on each shower wall and two short ones on the short wall. We were a little unsure about these last two stripes, as we had originally wanted it to look a bit more asymmetrical, but I think when looking at all three striped walls together (and with the toilet and shower in place), it will look good.

Day Three: short wall with stripes.

Getting Ready for Tiling

Shower floor.



Otto surveys the floor tile.

One Month Later

These photos are from September 27, exactly one month after the last post.

The dry wall is in. Here's a tour, starting from the back staircase (already existing, but with added drywall, since it was formerly not insulated).



Halfway up.



The view of the back porch of the attic (which will be the boys' sunroom/playroom).



The view from the sunroom/playroom looking into the boys' room.



A bit closer, standing in the doorway of the boys' room.



Skylight.



Looking from the hallway into the master bedroom (on the right is a bit of the stairway).



Standing in the northwest corner of the master bedroom.



The dormer (and future home to the new staircase).



The beginnings of the shower.